This week Shaina and Michael join me to revisit Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication," a mournfully chill song about how Californian culture is copulating with the rest of the world--to mixed results.

How did Anthony Kiedis's "cleansing trip to Thailand" factor into the creation of this song? Do we have the strength of will to analyze all five verses? Can anyone but Californians enjoy this band responsibly?

Plus: a music video featuring an RHCP-themed video game that doesn't exist and shouldn't, candid moments where we admit to liking parts of this song, and as usual, utterly deranged youtube comments.

Following in Kid Rock’s carpetbagging cowboy boot steps, Uncle Kracker released his debut album featuring this banal, confusingly confident single about:

Heroin (duh you stupid idiot)

Adultery

Being Secretly Gay

Being Openly Very Cool

Also: a music video featuring characters fantasizing about better music, a Cracker with a stage performance like a tired sock, and an older woman in the comments section who tries to teach young boys the art of seduction.

3, 2, 1, Kaboom. This week I blow up the moon, and this podcast, by doing my first ever official solo episode. (I think I had a solo Grammys show like 3 years back, but we all know the Grammys don't actually matter)

I'm here to dissect one of the more bizarre entries into That Awful Sound cannon: a collaboration between Blues Traveler, JC Chasez, and 3OH!3.

Blow Up The Moon is the titular track from an album full of unwanted collaborations including Jewel, Rome without Sublime, and a guy from American Pie.

Not bizarre enough, you claim? Well, the music video was generated using Grand Theft Auto V rendering software.

Welcome back to the show! This week we're returning to mid-00's radio demo with Dashboard Confessional.

We cover the history of this song, including the fact that it was written in 10 minutes by an inspired Chris Carraba after a screening of Spider-Man 2.

We also suss out the creepiness of these lyrics, one listener's overtly creepy interpretation of these lyrics, and Cohost Tony reminisces about carrying around a watercolor portrait of Chris Carraba in his three-ring binder.

This week we talk about Willa Ford, an aspiring bad girl whose career was cut short by a tragic event in 2001. Returning guest Laura Mee recalls this song helping hone her edge during the transition from Utah to California, and from pop to pop punk.

We talk about the precedent set by the song with likely paved the way for the “dirty” eras of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera; A weird, Eminem-based rap verse by someone who is not Eminem; And an outfit featuring what we all agree to be a diaper.

This week on a very special episode of That Awful Sound, we take a self-guided Sublime tour around Long Beach, visiting important historical markers such as the Sublime mural, ONS liquor store, Cal State Long Beach (where 40 oz to Freedom was recorded), Bradley Nowell’s gravesite, and a random head shop in order to bring you a jam-packed episode on the band’s breakout single, Date Rape.

How did this song exist? Why? Do Sublime fans invalidate whatever good intentions this song might’ve originally had?

This week Michael "Matchbox" Muñoz joins me to talk Enrique and his massive hit "Bailamos" and it's weird relationship with Wild Wild West, including a music video tie-in and a gushing review from Will Smith himself.

Plus: old online news copy and all the cringe-y wordplay that entails, lyrics about defiant, life-threatening dancing, and some of the most bizarre youtube comments we've ever had

This week I talk “Seein Red’” with Nick Guenzler (@TerminalRadness) by Unwritten Law and not Chevelle

We remember how the vast majority of us were tricked into thinking this band was punk, the various physical altercations between the lead singer and his bandmates, and the lazy-yet-bizarre music video featuring 5 clones of the singer making out with 5 clones of his girlfriend.

Music We Like: BAMBARA - Shadow on Everything, and Iceage - Beyondless

This week Cahn rejoins me to FINALLY cover another member of the Big Four: Megadeth, and their ultra-literal "Train of Consequences."

How much of this song is about horse racing? Did their drummer ever figure out how the rotating room effect works? Did Paul Schaffer ever get to shred on harmonica with another metal band? I'm afraid this episode raises more questions than it answers.

This week Ray Harkens of Taken joins the show to talk about his affinity for early 2000’s post grunge and butt rock, through the lens of Hoobastank’s “Crawling in the Dark”

Taken also has a new EP, their first recordings in over a decade, and you can hear the title track now on Spotify or other streaming services.

“If we weren’t a hardcore band, I think we would probably sound a little bit like Trust Company or Hoobastank”

In This Episode: FOUR different interpretations of the totally straightforward lyrics, one involving an animated mole prince, and another involving adolescent masturbation. Also we have Michael seeing the band on the “Sprite Liquid Mix” tour in 2002, a totally sick Mountain Dew commercial featuring Hoobastank and a pre-fame Channing Tatum, and a song meanings comment about one young man’s potential to save the world.

Music We Like: Hot Water Music - A Flight And A Crash, Slow Meadow - Costero, At The Gates - A Stare Bound In Stone, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Shiggy